Citroen SM Maserati

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 Styled in-house by Citroën's chief designer Robert Opron, the futuristic SM with its glassed-in nose and sweeping flanks took over where the DS left off.

Unusually aerodynamic for its era with a drag coefficient of just 0.26, it looked like a teardrop from above and had a shaped undertray which sucked it to the road the faster it went. Only available in left-hand drive, the interior was as striking as the exterior with extravagantly padded seats and a highly stylised gear shift.

It bristled with technical innovations such as graduated power steering that weighted up as speed increased, self-levelling headlights and suspension, rain-sensing wipers and hydraulic brakes that could stop it on a sixpence. The fastest front-wheel drive car in the world, it was powered by Maserati's 175bhp 2.7-litre V6 and could cruise all day at three figure speeds with uncanny smoothness.

With its cool, intellectual styling and technical cleverness, the SM is often caricatured as a car for architects and industrial designers but its appeal goes wider than that – Empereror Haile Selassie was very fond of his and Idi Amin had seven of them! Just 12,920 were made between 1970 and 1975 and survivors are now increasingly sought after.

This particular SM dates from 1974 and was first registered in the UK in May 1976. It was acquired by the Stondon Motor Museum in 1997 but has been very little used these past 17 years. Although the car is said to be in running order it will require a certain amount of recommissioning and restoration before it can be put back into use. With top examples now nudging £30k, it looks a most appealing project and is being offered here with no reserve so the bravest bid takes it.